Seagate will launch the world’s first 30+TB HDDs based on HAMR (Heat Assisted Magnetic Recording) technology in the coming months. The company will be delivering these drives a quarter earlier than initially anticipated. These will follow the 20+TB HDDs currently being ramped up for mass distribution. The first shipments will likely go to key customers, with the wider launch coming later.
Traditional PMR (Perpendicular Magnetic Recording) drives aren’t going anywhere for the time being. Seagate plans to launch its 22 TB, and 24 TB PMR drives sometime this year. Expect these drives to land later this quarter with SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) as an added feature. Up to 22 2.2TB platters will be used to accomplish this objective.
Our 20-terabyte product features two terabytes per disk capacity and we have started to ramp the volume of 22-terabyte products deployed on 2.2 terabytes per disk capacities. The 20-plus terabyte platform is based on traditional PMR technology.
And some customers are choosing to enable SMR technology as an additional feature that slightly increases the drive’s capacity for certain applications. In the December quarter, about 35% of our nearline exabyte shipments were deployed as SMR drives. We are executing plans to deliver another 10% gain in per disk capacity for this PMR platform to offer drives in the mid to upper 20 terabyte range.
William David Mosley, CEO Seagate
Seagate will start shipping higher capacity HAMR drives in the coming years, with 40+TB parts expected in 2024 and 50+TB in 2025. As usual, the drives from the first volume ramp will go to key cloud clients in the coming weeks (the 30+TB drives), with commercial shipments planned for Q3. (Diazepam)
As a result of this progress, we now expect to launch our 30-plus terabyte platform in the June quarter, slightly ahead of schedule. The speed of the initial HAMR volume ramp will depend on several factors, including product yields and customer qualification timelines.
We are meeting or exceeding all product development milestones and reliability metrics, and we will be shipping pre-qualification units to key cloud customers in the coming weeks.
William David Mosley, CEO Seagate
The yields of HAMR drives are expected to be relatively low this year, which means higher price tags. Production is expected to improve next year, with 2025 seeing further commercialization. The midrange drives will be the first to hit the consumer market as cloud giants test the higher capacity models.
Source: Seagate